Is Fentanyl legal in Pakistan?

Legal status

Fentanyl is not in Schedule-I to the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 and has no row in the section 9(1) narcotic table. What controls it is the Control of Narcotic Substances (Regulation of Drugs of Abuse, Controlled Chemicals, Equipment and Materials) Rules, 2001, made under section 77 of the Act, where it is a high-risk drug of abuse, rule 2(1)(xvi), with its analogues as prohibited drugs under rule 2(1)(xxxi). It is named in Schedule II of the Rules 2001, which lists it beside alfentanil and sufentanil. Schedule I, the prohibited schedule, separately names eight fentanyl analogues, among them alpha-methylfentanyl, beta-hydroxyfentanyl, para-fluorofentanyl and thiofentanyl.

Consequences if caught

Fentanyl has no band anywhere in section 9, because section 9 divides into narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and controlled substances and it is none of the three as the Act defines them. The Rules are a licensing regime and carry no penalties of their own, so a contravention falls to section 16 of the Act: 'Whoever contravenes any provision of this Act or any rule or order made, or any licence, permit or authorisation issued hereunder, for which no punishment is separately provided in this Chapter, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and fine.' Capital and life exposure. Section 16 has no life band and no capital band. The section 9 tables, where both would live, do not reach this substance. Death is not available. Act No. XXXVIII of 2023, section 2, assented on 2 August 2023 and published in the Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary, on 5 August 2023, removed every death reference from section 9. The words at the heroin and morphine band of 6000 grams or more and at the cocaine band of 5000 grams or more were omitted, and the Pakistan Code now prints a bracketed omission mark where they stood. In the fourth proviso to section 9(2) the words 'may be death or' were replaced by 'shall be'. The word death survives twice in the whole fifty page Act and both are procedural. Because death is unavailable, the question whether it is mandatory does not arise. The ceiling is life, and section 9A(3) says what that means: 'Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for time being in force, imprisonment for life under this Act means imprisonment in jail for the period of twenty-five years.' Section 9A(2) bars probation and parole, and section 9A(1) bars remission except for a juvenile or a female convict.

If prescribed or medical

Where a prescription for fentanyl exists at all, rule 2(1)(xxix) says what it has to be: 'a written direction by a practitioner that a stated amount of a drug of abuse be dispensed for the person named therein'. Its classification under the Rules, not under the Act, is what sets the strictness of the licence conditions. Rule 3(2) applies the strictest measures to Schedule I of the Rules, less strict to Schedule II and the least strict to Schedule III. Section 6 prohibits possession and the rest 'except for medical, scientific or industrial purposes in the manner and subject to such conditions as may be specified by or under this Act or any other law for the time being in force'. The conditions are the Control of Narcotic Substances (Regulation of Drugs of Abuse, Controlled Chemicals, Equipment and Materials) Rules, 2001, which run a registration, licence and permit system under rules 5 to 18. Rule 14 provides for permits in relation to first-aid kits and rule 15 for programmes for medical and scientific purposes, and rule 11 governs import, export and transit permits. A traveller carrying a prescribed medicine should hold the prescription and the dispensing label, in the prescriber's name, and should expect the quantity to be measured against the section 9 bands if the substance is scheduled.

Documentation

Why fentanyl has no open question under the Act, unlike the opiates beside it. There is no open question here, and that is worth saying plainly because there is one for the opiates on this page. Fentanyl is a synthetic anilidopiperidine, not an opium derivative, so there is no second route into the Act for it and the Rules are the whole of its regime. Section 2(q) and section 2(u) are inclusive definitions, each opening with 'includes', so they could in principle stretch, but there is nothing for them to stretch to here. The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 does not reach it either: the Schedule to that Order lists only hemp, charas, mixtures of the two, opium and opium derivatives, coca leaf and coca derivatives, and hashish.

Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Pakistan’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.